After over a year of passing my goats to another family (which was like saying goodbye to my childhood stuffed animals), I am back to milking, but in a very interesting arrangement. This is why I love living in Santa Fe: less than a mile from my house is a co-housing community with a beautiful piece of land right on the river. I can walk there from my house down the river path. There live three Sable Saanen goats who are milked on rotation by a goat-milking co-op! I have joined this co-op, and now every Thursday morning (and yes, that included the recent Christmas and New Year’s days), I head down there to milk and enjoy sweet contact with the girls, the chickens, the barnyard, and the natural rhythms of being with animals in all the seasons. This is a great compromise for me–the co-op shares expenses, responsibilities like mucking, purchasing supplies, responding to emergencies, and even covering shifts if you want to go away–like on vacation!–and I get to keep goats, milking, and fresh milk in my life. And of course you get to experience this nutrient-rich, moisturizing leche in my goat milk soaps!

Still not sure which Milk+Honey gift is right? You can always get a Milk+Honey Gift Certificate! We can also include a personalized message to your recipient and mail it right to them–just include your message in the note of your order!

We’re having a huge holiday sale Nov 28-Dec 21, to help you get started with your holiday shopping from the comfort of your home. And if that isn’t enough, you’ll be rewarded with gifts for yourself, too!

A couple weeks ago Daven was a guest on Marly Bird’s Yarn Thing podcast. During the post she talked about her early knitting projects, and we thought it would be nice for listeners to see the projects Daven talked about! If you haven’t heard it yet, you can listen to the whole podcast here, and read the show notes here.

Daven’s first knitting project, a sweater for her daughter. If you watch our new video you can see Roan, now 17!

Today we continue our series highlighting independent yarn stores that carry Milk+Honey Products. We are so lucky to work with such great partners.

The Yarnery is at the Vogue Knitting Live event this weekend in Chicago! Visit them at booths 221-223.

The Yarnery has been a fiber arts institution for almost 40 years. Located on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul’s Victoria Crossing shopping district, The Yarnery is surrounded by great restaurants, unique shops, and historic sites. The Yarnery has a wonderful selection of natural fibers—wools, cottons, alpaca, mohair, silk—in a full range of weights and colors, and a comprehensive range of patterns from talented local and international designers.

Scott and Shelly from the Yarnery visit the Milk+Honey booth at TNNA

We still love Milk + Honey as much as when we first encountered it about a year ago. It’s always on the front counter, people love trying the different scents, exclaiming that each one is better than the last. And we know it’s a real hit because our very choosy staff all buy the balm and lotion bars repeatedly. And we love working with a small producer dedicated to quality! We have a few brands for which we’ve become known, and Milk + Honey is definitely one of them.

If you haven’t heard the news already, we’re hosting a one day free shipping sale on the entire Milk+Honey website! This is a great time to stock up for holiday gifting. So, go crazy, buy lotion bars, goat milk soap, anywhere balm, and don’t forget Sula!

We’re so excited about our new videos, and today we’re sharing some behind-the-scenes photos from our shooting! First up is a video about our company, our ingredients, and our family. You can watch the video here.

And, of course, we’re sharing some behind-the-scenes photos from the filming.

Next is our short and sweet video, all about using and enjoying our lotion bars. If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can see it here. Here are a couple photos from our filming.

We really loved making these videos, and we hope you’ll enjoy them, too!

Here at Milk+Honey we use locally-grown, certified organic calendula flowers to infuse the almond oil for our lotion bars and the organic extra-virgin olive oil for our soaps. We steep the flowers in the oil like you would a tea bag. These beautiful, deep-orange flowers are a powerful, all-purpose skin-healing herb that soothes skin ailments from dryness and itching to rashes and burns, generally promoting skin healing, while making normal skin softer and healthier.

These are photos of farmer Kristen Davenport and her family, of Boxcar Farms. My other grower is Heather Harrell of For the Love of Bees. Both women work their land just outside of Taos, NM.

Oils infused with calendula can also be used for breast-health massage–a lovely use of Milk+Honey Lotion Bars.

Calendula is in bloom now, and we can’t wait to get another batch of these beautiful flowers from Kristen and Heather.

We’re excited to start a new series of blog posts featuring independently owned yarn, fabric, and craft shops that carry Milk+Honey products.

Gather Here is a fabric, yarn, and fiber store in Cambridge, Massachusetts that offers classes, an inspirational work space, and knowledgeable instructors. They provide a creative, fun, inspiring environment for the maker in everyone.

Virginia, the owner of Gather Here, also works as a costumer on movie sets, and here’s what she had to say about our lotion bars: “Milk+Honey is the costume supervisor’s preferred hand moisturizer. I carry a tin with me at all times because I’m handling fibers and hangers all day. From clean laundry to heavily aged leather, Milk+Honey keeps my hands feeling loved.” Virginia’s partner Noah says, “Because the anywhere balm fits in my pocket I can keep it with me and use it when I’m working on set. Great in all seasons, too!”

Have you been to Gather Here? Does your local yarn/fiber/sewing/craft store carry Milk+Honey? We’d love to see your photos and comments!

We’re so excited about our new scent, Lavender-Rosemary! It’s a lovely earthy blend of two wonderful scents combined to create something new and wonderful. Available as both a lotion bar and goat milk soap and in all of our different molds. We hope you’ll enjoy this delicious scent as much as we do!